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Conservative frosh go opposite ways

Reps. Tim Huelskamp and Allen West are on opposite sides of the debt ceiling plan. | AP Photos
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On Tuesday, House Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy showed the Republican Conference a scene from the gritty Boston crime drama “The Town,” which is about two Southie career criminals who try to pull off the ultimate bank heist at Fenway Park. In it, Ben Affleck’s character asks his friend to commit a crime with him. “I need your help,” the character says. “I can never tell you about it; you can’t ask me later; and we’re going to hurt some people.”

“Who’s car are we going to take?” his best friend says without missing a beat.

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“I’m willing to drive the car,” West told his colleagues after viewing the clip.

But not everyone wants to be an accomplice. Huelskamp was skeptical from the minute he saw the details of Boehner’s plan — another deficit-reduction commission, no guarantee that the balanced-budget amendment would be sent to the states and a lack of specifics for fiscal 2012 spending cuts. As a member of the Budget Committee, he says he has the benefit of seeing what it takes to get a budget blueprint through the House.

“I know folks have different strategies, and I have [the] advantage of looking at it as a member of the Budget Committee, looking at the numbers and realizing that we are in a serious crisis and this doesn’t do nearly enough,” he said.

Huelskamp sees the passage of another House plan as a form of welfare — for Senate Democrats and the president. “We’re helping them avoid responsibility,” he said.

“I appreciate people who think the House has lost and we can’t take on the Senate and president to do anything better, but I go home and talk to people, and they’re aghast and shocked that the president and Senate haven’t done any better,” Huelskamp said. “Now is not the time to abandon the only workable program that will avoid a credit rating downgrade.”

Most of the freshmen have taken a position somewhere between West and Huelskamp — leaving themselves wiggle room to come to a final decision just before a vote.

“It’s a very tough choice,” said Rep. Dennis Ross, another freshman from Florida. The freshmen were instrumental in pushing the balanced-budget amendment — once a relic of the 1994 Republican Revolution — to the center of the debate, and Ross, like many of his colleagues, would prefer the new plan guarantees the constitutional amendment will be sent to the states, rather than just offering a vote on it.

Other freshmen are getting the hard sell.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) was approached by Boehner on the way out of the cloakroom Tuesday to gauge his support.

“Every freshman has learned from our experience with the continuing resolutions. We all know there are a lot of word games going on, and sometimes, the way someone uses a word is not the way we interpret it. I expect people to be much more cautious,” Brooks said later. “I will probably not make up my mind for sure until the vote is in the process of happening.”

As the roll call vote lights flick on Thursday, Boehner is hoping more of his rookies follow West than Huelskamp, or his plan will be in trouble.

You are too funny. Watch and see if the repubs vote down their own plan. There are two republican parties--the martini repubs and the tea repubs and they are worlds apart, lol. Martini repubs represent Corporate America, tea repubs represent the old outdated past which is NEVER coming back. No one is going back to those days. FYI, the five Dems who broke with their parties are from the most conservative states in the Union including OKLA, so it makes sense they voted for it. But you cannot turn the GDP back to 1966, just like you will not return people back to 1966. The house will burn down first. Lil' Obama's plan is simple a balanced approach--equal cuts to expenditures and revenue. He is not a lawmaker, he is the President of the United States. So the republicans should just do their job instead of having to have Mr. Harvard Pres. step in and do their homework for them, or they can get their corporate buddies to shed some light. Corporations have no intention of going down with the tea party...the coming days will show you just how powerful they are, those phone calls from the banks will start rolling in, and you will see a completely different GOP...wait for it...wait for it....lol.

You are too funny. Watch and see if the repubs vote down their own plan. There are two republican parties--the martini repubs and the tea repubs and they are worlds apart, lol. Martini repubs represent Corporate America, tea repubs represent the old outdated past which is NEVER coming back. No one is going back to those days. FYI, the five Dems who broke with their parties are from the most conservative states in the Union including OKLA, so it makes sense they voted for it. But you cannot turn the GDP back to 1966, just like you will not return people back to 1966. The house will burn down first. Lil' Obama's plan is simple a balanced approach--equal cuts to expenditures and revenue. He is not a lawmaker, he is the President of the United States. So the republicans should just do their job instead of having to have Mr. Harvard Pres. step in and do their homework for them, or they can get their corporate buddies to shed some light. Corporations have no intention of going down with the tea party...the coming days will show you just how powerful they are, those phone calls from the banks will start rolling in, and you will see a completely different GOP...wait for it...wait for it....lol.

Will the Tea Partiers' overreach on the debt ceiling debate match the Dems' overreach on Obamacare?

As of yesterday, even Rasmussen says that the public favors a balanced approach over spending cuts only, 56% to 34%.

Tea Partiers of course like to cite that Obamacare is still unpopular with the public because they look at polls and all that, so maybe they should also cite that their own position on the debt ceiling debate is equally unpopular.

You are too funny. Watch and see if the repubs vote down their own plan. There are two republican parties--the martini repubs and the tea repubs and they are worlds apart, lol. Martini repubs represent Corporate America, tea repubs represent the old outdated past which is NEVER coming back. No one is going back to those days. FYI, the five Dems who broke with their parties are from the most conservative states in the Union including OKLA, so it makes sense they voted for it. But you cannot turn the GDP back to 1966, just like you will not return people back to 1966. The house will burn down first. Lil' Obama's plan is simple a balanced approach--equal cuts to expenditures and revenue. He is not a lawmaker, he is the President of the United States. So the republicans should just do their job instead of having to have Mr. Harvard Pres. step in and do their homework for them, or they can get their corporate buddies to shed some light. Corporations have no intention of going down with the tea party...the coming days will show you just how powerful they are, those phone calls from the banks will start rolling in, and you will see a completely different GOP...wait for it...wait for it....lol.

The debate among House Republicans may be giving the clueless Dems and Obama dreams of victory but, in the end, the Repubs will come together and crush the Dem/Obama cabal and its plan to wreak the economy and create a socialist tyranny.

Honest debate on substantial issues is a hallmark of conservatism. Radicals do not comprehend the difference between this and their constant backbiting and useless rhetoric. However, the American voters/taxpayers do understand and will reward the Republicans in 2012 by giving them both houses of Congress and the White House. Then, and only then, will this nation begin to regain its strong and prosperous economy and the strength to continue as the greatest nation in history.

Just to get this straight: Republicans are pumping themselves up for this fight by emulating "career criminals" planning the "ultimate heist" where they're "gonna hurt some people"? Yep, that sounds absolutely perfect. They defy parody.

I guess these freshman don't really care if they get a second term or not, like it or not, most people was a balance in dealing with our deficit, they don't understand the Republican's stance that we can't raise taxes on the wealthy businesses because they will stop hiring, people hear that statemend and wonder "where are the jobs?" These low taxes have been in place for several years yet we still have a unemployment rate of 9.2%. These Tea Party fanatics are going to do exactly the opposite of what they wanted, they wanted to make Obama a one-term president and now people see Obama as the lesser of 2 evils. If this Republican House sends our country into default it will be the end of them. While their constituents may be sticking by them now, wait until they realize that the sky really is falling, they will abandon them like rats on a sinking ship.

It's sad to see so many liberals and democrats parrot the same talking points as this incompetent boob of a president. The president has no plan other then SPENDING more money that doesn't exist. How can you borrow another 2.7 Trillion dollars for 2 years and think that saving 1 Trillion will mean you have balanced your books.

It is simply mind boggling and just more proof that a public school education isn't worth the welfare check it's written on.

"...tea repubs represent the old outdated past which is NEVER coming back."

Like the days when people paid their bills and lived within their means? One way or the other, those days are coming back: We either stand up and face our debt problem and pay as we go, or the debt problem will roll over and crush us.